The Pittsburgh Steelers have made a habit of finding mid-round steals over the last few drafts with Omar Khan in charge, and it’s already starting to look like they found another with fifth-round DT Yahya Black out of Iowa. His impressive training camp translated to the field Saturday night in the Steelers’ preseason opener.
Brian Baldinger broke down five of his snaps on X and couldn’t believe how good the rookie already looks.
“There’s things about this guy that you go, ‘Is he a member of the Steel Curtain?'” Baldinger said. “You watch straight power, just grabbing elbows and wrists and hands and just pushing the guard right back into the lap of the quarterback. Play after play…This is the steal of the fifth round right here. You can tell already.”
Normally a fifth-round pick would be playing 25 or 30 snaps in their first preseason game. Jack Sawyer, drafted a round before Black, played 32. That Black only played 10 total snaps either tells you the Steelers saw everything they needed to see, or they already view him as an important piece of their defense they don’t want to risk him getting hurt.
Black finished the game with an 82.3 Pro Football Focus grade, the fifth-best mark on the team. That included a 72.6 run defense grade and an 82.0 in pass rush. It’s easy to see why after watching Baldinger’s breakdown.
At 6056, 336 pounds with 35-inch arms, Black is already showing signs of maximizing every bit of his size.
The first play of the clip was against former first-round OT Anton Harrison. Black used his length and strength to buy himself room and scraped across Harrison’s face to make a tackle. This wasn’t the second- or third-string offense for the Jaguars, either. Black did this against the starters.
Black’s ceiling seemed limited as a pass rusher, but this tape is already making me re-evaluate that stance. He showed high-level hand fighting and a nasty push-pull move to get into the Jacksonville backfield for a pressure. And when he knew he wasn’t going to get the sack, those 35-inch arms were up in the passing lanes to limit where the quarterback could throw the ball. There’s a reason he leads the team in batted passes at training camp.
It looked like an impressive debut for Black from the TV tape, and the All-22 coaches film only confirms that. If Yahya Black keeps ascending, Pittsburgh’s rebuilt defensive line might be ready to dominate sooner than expected.
